1. Field
Exemplary embodiments relate to an object detecting apparatus, and a method of operating the same, and more particularly, exemplary embodiments relate to an object detecting apparatus, which diversifies the detection area using a plurality of sensors to improve performance of detecting an object existing around a vehicle, and a method of operating the same.
2. Discussion of the Background
A technique related to an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) has recently gained interest with vehicle manufacturers and consumers.
The ADAS is a system for implementing various safety functions and convenience functions for drivers and pedestrians, and a representative example thereof is an autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system.
The AEB system refers to a system that detects a situation where an object, such as another vehicle existing within a predetermined distance from a front side of a vehicle, decreases a speed or suddenly appears by using a sensor, such as a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor or a camera sensor that is capable of detecting an object, to control the vehicle so that the vehicle is automatically braked even if a driver does not operate a brake. The AEB system is an advanced version of a passive method of simply providing an alarm and making a driver take measures by himself/herself in the related art.
LiDAR sensors have a higher object detection rate and higher distance accuracy, but have lower detection reliability than camera sensors. By contrast, camera sensors have higher reliability with respect to object detection than LiDAR sensors, but have slightly lower distance accuracy and slightly lower detection rates for actual objects. Accordingly, when an object is complementarily detected by using both LiDAR and camera sensors, it is possible to further decrease a possibility of an operation failure and an erroneous operation of the AEB system and the like.
However, the related art of Korean Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-2010-0111543: Method and Apparatus for Recognizing Vehicle (published on Oct. 15, 2010) discloses only the technology of recognizing a front vehicle by simply combining a LiDAR sensor and a camera sensor, and does not refer to technology of diversifying a common detection area of the LiDAR sensor and the camera sensor and processing data in accordance with a characteristic of each area to improve an object detection rate and/or the reliability of the object detection. The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the inventive concept, and, therefore, it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.